The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Abaco Chamber of Commerce is sounding the alarm about corruption among a small number of government employees.

Abaco Chamber of Commerce president Ken Hutton said yesterday there were three incidents reported in the last two weeks of government employees asking residents for personal payments in order to fulfil their duties.

The organisation published a statement on Facebook which said: “The Abaco Chamber of Commerce is deeply concerned about recent reports of (a) small number of government employees demanding personal payments in order to execute their paid responsibilities. This is a tiny minority of the Bahamas government service employees; the vast majority of whom serve with honour and dignity.

“Be advised that demanding personal payment is not acceptable conduct and no government employee is allowed to solicit payment for duties they are required to perform as part of their government service. We would request anyone receiving such a demand confidentially notify the Abaco Chamber of Commerce of the date, time and government employee involved and we will ensure the incident is brought forward to authorities.

“Please contact the Abaco Chamber (of Commerce) at info@abacochamber.org. Please only respond with first-hand experience if it has happened to you personally. All information will be kept confidential unless otherwise authorised.”

Mr Hutton told The Tribune the Chamber of Commerce has not yet involved police in the matter but that it was important to get the message out.

“When we get the information and people want to go forward with it, it will go to the authority,” he said.

He could not say how much money the employees were allegedly demanding.